Constructive Conflict Management: Asia-Pacific Cases

How did environmental groups and a multinational company agree to halt logging operations in a Korean old-growth forest? How did the families of a Muslim woman and a Hindu man resolve a crisis in the couple's relationship? How did the government of China manage a copyright infringement case between a Japanese company and a Chinese business? Different cultures use a wide range of styles in managing conflict. Using cases drawn from the Asian and Pacific Island area, this unique volume examines how conflict within and between cultures can be successfully mediated on the micro (businesses and individuals) level and how this success can be applied to the macro (government and nongovernment organizations) level. The editors present models for conflict management in a cultural context and apply those models to 24 wide-ranging cases. The cases cover a variety of conflict types: regional/cultural, nuclear family, extended family, land and environmental, neighborhood disputes, and those involving indigenous peoples. The cases can be used for analysis and study individually or collectively to help develop models for dispute resolution in the Asia-Pacific region and to demonstrate the global relationships among culture, conflict, and dispute resolution. The book reveals how culture can provide a positive resource, rather than a barrier, for the mediation of multicultural conflict. Professional mediators, managers working in Asia-Pacific multicultural settings, family counselors, consultants, and students of conflict resolution, mediation, cross-cultural relations, psychology, and communication will find this book a useful perspective on understanding culture's role in conflict mediation.